Jagex wages war against gold farming in RuneScape 3 with Bonds

Developer Jagex has had it with gold farmers in its massively multiplayer online game, RuneScape 3. Starting today, it’s launching what it considers the final blow to that dark side of the community: bonds.

Gold farming is when people dedicate themselves, or crafty A.I.-controlled bots, to racking up enough in-game money to sell to other players for real cash. Elaborate gold-farming operations overseas have sprung up because it has become such a lucrative industry. This causes inflation in a game’s economy, frustrating both players and developers.